Funny: ''You corrupt bastard!'' So began an email from a constituent to an OZschwitz MP

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RR Phantom

Location : Wabbit HoleJob/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary

Subject: Funny: ''You corrupt bastard!'' So began an email from a constituent to an OZschwitz MP Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:56 am

'You corrupt bastard!'' So began an email from a constituent to a government MP on Wednesday morning, after the news broke that the two major parties had done a deal on electoral funding that would deliver them an extra $10 million a year over the next four years. He didn't intend changing his vote on the issue, the irate emailer added, because he had already made that decision.

The previous day, the Labor caucus had overwhelmingly endorsed legislation to enact the deal, including new laws covering political donations, despite the protestations of John Faulkner, the Labor figure who has campaigned doggedly for reform of political funding for the past five years.

It fell to Minister Gary Gray, who had had carriage of the issue until he switched portfolios in March, to explain the public benefit of the changes to an outraged Neil Mitchell on 3AW that morning and, it's fair to say, his bedside manner proved unpersuasive. ''Your politicians are crooks,'' Mitchell later blogged. ''They are in the process of secretly stealing $60 million out of your pocket.''